Family Ties – Kilpatrick Part II

28042008

In this post I told you about some of the noteworthy descendants of the Class of ‘61’s Hugh Judson Kilpatrick. Continued research at the prompting of friends Jim Morgan and Teej Smith has turned up some more info on the progeny of Kil-Cavalry. Strap yourself in, things could get a little bumpy…

Judson and his Chilean wife Louisa had a daughter, Laura, who married US diplomat Harry Hays Morgan. Harry Hays Morgan was the son of Philip Hicky Morgan, a Louisianan who remained loyal during the war and was rewarded by the Republicans afterwards with various state and Federal positions including the ministry to Mexico. Philip was the brother of Sarah Morgan, whose writings were published as The Civil War Diary of a Southern Woman (AKA A Confederate Girl’s Diary), and also of James Morris Morgan, author of Recollections of a Rebel Reefer. For some reason, Philip is listed as buried here in Pittsburgh’s Allegheny Cemetery, though he died in New York and as far as I’ve been able to learn never lived in the Steel City (see update here). I couldn’t find any images of Philip, but here are Sarah and James:

Laura and Harry had four children, including the twins, Gloria and Thelma (at left), Consuelo, and Harry Hays Morgan, Jr. Harry Jr. was a non-descript film actor in the 1940’s. Gloria, as discussed, would marry into the Vanderbilt family and give birth to Little Gloria of tight blue jeans fame. Thelma would eventually marry Marmaduke Furness, 1st Viscount Furness and chairman of a shipping company. This 7 year marriage gained Thelma the lifelong title of Viscountess Furness, though she was also known as Lady Furness. She dabbled in film acting and producing, and also in rich men. More on her later.

Consuelo, like Thelma, also married well and often. She married a French Count and a president of Colonial Airlines who was also a Democratic National Committee bigwig. But it is another of her marriages that at least gives a hint as to why Consuelo’s grandfather Morgan wound up in Pittsburgh (again, see update here).

One of Consuelo’s husbands was diplomat Benjamin Thaw, Jr., of the Pittsburgh coal family. His father, Benjamin Thaw, was a member of the now notorious South Fork Hunting and Fishing Club. The club was comprised of about fifty super-wealthy Pittsburgh families like the Carnegies, the Mellons, and the Fricks (here’s a member list). The club purchased an abandoned reservoir in the Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania on the Little Conemaugh River near the town of South Fork. The South Fork Dam formed Lake Conemaugh, the centerpiece of the Club’s secretive retreat of cottages.

On May 31, 1889, after days of heavy rain, the South Fork Dam burst, sending an estimated 20 million gallons of water down the Little Conemaugh River to the point where it joined with Stony Creek to form the Conemaugh River. At that confluence was a steel producing settlement of 30,000; Johnstown, PA. Over 2,200 people perished. Many survivors blamed the catastrophe on the changes made to the South Fork Dam by the South Fork Hunting and Fishing Club. Read about the Johnstown Flood here.

Consuelo’s father-in-law also had a brother by the name of Harry Kendall Thaw(left). Harry was the black sheep of the family, having attended Western University (the future University of Pittsburgh) and Harvard with little distinction, unless you count his expulsion from the latter institution as noteworthy. Mentally unstable and a drug abuser, Harry really, really liked women, particularly showgirls – though he treated them very, very badly. This led to an infatuation with a transplanted Pittsburgher and Broadway chorus girl (and Gibson Girl) named Evelyn Nesbit.

Harry pursued Evelyn (right), against the protestations of his family. Evelyn enabled the pursuit, against the advice of her powerful friend and sometimes paramour Stanford White, the famous architect who had designed the second Madison Square Garden. (As a setting for his lavish libidinous escapades, White had a tower apartment at The Garden which featured numerous mirrors. He had another “love nest” that showcased a red velvet swing.) By this time, White had moved on to other conquests but appears to have maintained a fatherly relationship with Evelyn. Evelyn moved on to the actor John Barrymore and Harry Thaw. After a stormy continental courtship, Evelyn and Harry were married on April 4, 1905.

Apparently Evelyn’s past physical relationship with White (left) ate at Thaw, and either out of rage over that past or suspicions of an ongoing affair on June 25, 1906, in the rooftop theater of Madison Square Garden, Harry K. Thaw fired three pistol shots into the face of Stanford White, killing him instantly, to the tune of I Could Love a Million Girls. The typical high profile socialite New York murder trial ensued. Thaw was committed to an asylum, but was judged sane and set free by 1915. Read about the murder & trial here and here. Listen to a PBS American Experience clip here.

The affair has been the subject of Hollywood films such as The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing, starring Joan Collins as Evelyn, and Ragtime, which was based on the E. L. Doctorow novelof the same name. I read that book and also liked the movie, which featured James Cagney in his final film role, the late Howard Rollins in his finest, Elizabeth McGovern (a big crush of mine back then) as Evelyn, and Robert Joy as the insane Thaw, shouting his mantra: I’m Harry K. Thaw, of Pittsburgh! Even later, Doctorow’s book was the basis for a Broadway musical.

OK, back to the wife of Harry’s nephew. Consuelo Morgan Thaw and her sister Lady Thelma Furness were, as well as I can figure, living in England when the stock market crashed in 1929. Another American woman who, like Thelma and Consuelo, married well and often was living there, too. She was Bessie Warfield, the wife of the half-American shipping magnate Ernest Aldrich Simpson, and through Consuelo she became friends with Thelma.

Also around this time, Lady Thelma had taken up with a happy bachelor by the unlikely name of Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David. Everybody called him The Prince of Wales, or simply Royal Highness. Things were going along smoothly enough, and on January 10, 1931 Thelma introduced Bessie Warfield Simpson to her boyfriend, the Prince. In 1933 Lady Thelma took a trip back to the States, and Bessie, whom everyone called by her middle name, Wallis, swooped in to fill the void in the Prince’s life. The rest, as they say, is history.

Prince Edward became King Edward VIII of England in January, 1936, watching his accession ceremony in the company of his married girlfriend, Wallis Simpson. Edward made known his plans to marry Wallis as soon as her divorce was finalized. But the British government, headed by Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, opposed the union, in part because the position of the Church of England – which one could argue was born to facilitate divorce – opposed remarriage after divorce. Presented with the prospects of abandoning his love or accepting the resignations of the governments of the United Kingdom and the Dominions, Edward chose Wallis and a third option, abdicating his throne on December 10, 1936. The two lived out the remainder of their lives as the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Here’s a wonderful Philippe Halsmanphoto of the Windsors jumping (for joy, I suppose):

One other thing: Bessie Wallis Warfield was born on June 19, 1895 (or 1896), in Square Cottage at Monterey Inn, Blue Ridge Summit, PA (below), the very ground on which Hugh Judson Kilpatrick – the grandfather of the women who led Wallis to the love of her life – had fought a night battle in July, 1863.

I’m glad you enjoyed it, and thanks for saying so. I had a lot of fun writing it. All the research was done on the web, using multiple sources. It was interesting to see how some of the details get twisted from site to site – just like in the real (print) world!

[…] “What Hath Kilpatrick Wrought” on Harry Smeltzer’s blog Posted on April 29, 2008 by petruzzi Harry Smeltzer, on his Bull Runnings blog, has put up a couple terrific posts on the prodigial descendant line of Union General Hugh Judson Kilpatrick. Some are familiar with his more famous descendants, but Harry has put together quite a recounting of all of his descendants and some extremely interesting stories about them to boot. The first post is here, the second here. […]

Intersting reading, but I’m disappointed that you fell into the trap that THE Johnstown Flood was the fault of the “super-wealthy.” Johnstown was devestated again by floods in 1936 and 1977. I’m fairly certain no generation of Thaws, Pitcairns, Mellons or Fricks were manipulating the weather then either. I think the G-Man may have been responsible. Let’s swing by their “cottages” in St. Michael on our next Altoona Curve trip.

I didn’t say it was their fault, just that some survivors blamed them. The town suffered pretty significant flooding in the days leading up to the failure of the dam. But everything is the fault of the rich, in some folks’ minds. How little things change.

I’ve always wanted to see the site, which I think is now run by the NPS. Good biking up there too, right?

Dulce bellum inexpertis

“I am sending you these little incidents as I hear them well authenticated. They form, to the friends of the parties, part of the history of the glorious 21st. More anon.”

About

Hello! I’m Harry Smeltzer and welcome to Bull Runnings, where you'll find my digital history project on the First Battle of Bull Run which is organized under the Bull Run Resources section. I'll also post my thoughts on the processes behind the project and commentary on the campaign, but pretty much all things Civil War are fair game. You'll only find musings on my “real job” or my personal life when they relate to this project. My mother always told me "never discuss politics or religion in mixed company”, and that's sound advice where current events are concerned.

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This site is more than a blog. Bull Runnings also hosts digitized material pertaining to First Bull Run. In the Bull Run Resources link in the masthead and also listed below are links to Orders of Battle, After Action Reports, Official Correspondence, Biographical Sketches, Diaries, Letters, Memoirs, Newspaper Accounts and much, much more. Take some time to surf through the material. This is a work in process with no end in sight, so check back often!